The Week Before
by clarinetto14
Summary: So this is just a short one-shot chronicling the tales of Alek and Deryn before the start of Leviathan.  Section one tells of Alek's tale involving walkers while part two tells of Deryn and a hot air ballooning accident.  Rated K plus for character death.


**Ok so I had to write the chapter before Leviathan started for school so I decided to upload it on here to see what you guys think. I apologize for any wrong information, grammatical errors or anything else. Reviews are appreciated. **

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><p><strong>-ZERO- (Alek's Part)<strong>

Alek blinked open his eyes as the sun shown through the windows into his room. He squinted as he moved to get out of bed. Walking to his desk, Alek examined his set of cavalry and walkers, set in the perfect position for attack. It took most of last night to set it up and he believed it to be a invincible formation. Startled out of his thoughts by a knock on the door, Alek almost fell off his chair.

After settled back again he said, "Come in."

Count Volger walked in and looked down at Alek's military set-up. After examining it closely for several minutes Volger motioned with his hand to the right flank saying, "This walker is exposed hence this battle would have been lost because of one simple mistake."

As Volger wandered to room before stopping at Alek's window, Alek glared at the back of Volger's head before sighing slightly saying, "Are father and mother home yet from the political meeting?"

Looking over his shoulder at Alek, Volger replies, "Prince Aleksandar, your father is helping to keep a war from starting. Him being there is quite a bit more important than him being here."

"Yes I know this, but-"

"No buts. Now start on your literature and science. Your mother was very clear about you getting all your studies in before anything else as they take precedent."

"Yes sir" Alek replied sullenly as he opened his books and Volger walked out the door not even bothering to close it.

_Swish, clang, swish, clang _The sound of the two swords dueling echoed through the vast, brightly lit room.

"Your left side is exposed… Better… Now bend more in that lung… Raise your right arm slightly higher…There!" Volger cried as his sword was positioned right at Alek's chest. Backing up slightly, Volger made several more comments about Alek's fighting stance before resetting for another fencing spar.

Alek puffed out his cheeks and narrowed his eyes waiting for the upcoming attack. Focusing intently on his opponent Alek dodged each blow and returned with equal force. Not even three minutes later Alek's sword was pointed at Volger's chest, as Alek's face broke out in a wide grin. '_Finally,' _Alek thought wiping his sweaty brow.

Extending his hand, Volger takes Alek's sword in hand and walked over to the sword cabinet on the far wall. Placing both swords inside, Volger turned on his heels and walked out of the vast room.

"Wait! Are we finished with today's fencing lesson?" Alek called to Volger's retreating figure.

Without even turning around Volger simply states, "Yes, Your Highness."

Grimacing slightly Alek followed Volger out of the room only to be stopped by his master of mechanics, Otto Klopp.

"Young master, are you ready for your walker lesson?" Otto asked slightly out of breath.

"Yes," Alek replied and switched his direction to the palace courtyard.

Walking out the door into the bright sunshine, Alek smiled slightly embracing the warmth that was lacking in the cold palace. Scanning the surrounding fields, his eyes squint and find a distant walker seeming to be out on a test run. Alek, ginning from ear to ear, ran out to the outskirts of the field to meet the walker. As the walker slowed to a halt just feet from him, swinging back and forth only slightly, the hatch opened and a few operators alighted from the walker's body.

These workers started across the field while others came to replace them while Alek and Otto pull themselves into the hatch. Sitting down in one operator's chairs, Alek grabbed the controls and started the walker forward at a considerably quick speed especially for him.

"Slowly, young master," Otto said watching Alek slow the walker down to about half the earlier speed.

Alek gritted his teeth as he moved the controls forward slowly taking each step cautiously with much thought. After maneuvering the walker all across the field gradually Alek brought it to a halt.

"Another lesson well done, young master," Otto said jumping down from the walker.

"Thank-you," Alek replied before walking back into the palace for his final lessons of the day.

After eating a very satisfying five course meal, Alek hurried back to his room to start setting up a new military formation. Moving each piece to a precise position, Alek starts to formulate an even better plan than the night before. Alek lets his eyes close for a second and realizes just how tired he is. Yawning suddenly, Alek looks towards his welcoming bed and tries to resist falling asleep. _'I guess I can finish this tomorrow,' _Alek thought getting into bed and turning off the light. _'I have nothing better to do tomorrow anyway.' _

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><p><strong>-Zero Point Five- (Deryns part)<strong>

Deryn looked out the window as she fiddled with the limp piece of string in her hands. Watching the glass fog up with each breath she took, Deryn sat back in her chair dejectedly. '_Where is Da?' _she thought, '_He should be home by now.' _Specks appeared in the distance and Deryn shot up suddenly very excited. _'That might be Jaspert and Da,' _she thought excitedly. Running towards the door, she triped over a lone chair before hurriedly picking herself back up and yanking the door open.

Her mother standing just outside the door says startled, "What has the door ever done to you?"

Grinning excitedly Deryn replies, "I think Jaspert and Da are back!"

Her mother with a small smile on her face says softly, "Well go meet them then, hurry on."

Deryn swings open the gate and runs down the narrow lane that their house was on. Getting closer and closer to the specks, she realized she was wrong and their was only one speck. Coming ever closer she also noticed that it was her brother, Jaspert.

Skidding to a stop in front of her brother, Deryn grinned. "Why are you back before Da?" she asked but suddenly frowned noticing Jaspert's red, puffy face.

"What's wrong?" she continued hesitantly.

Without answering her, Jaspert continued walking down the road towards their house shaking slightly.

Whirling toward him, Deryn ran to catch up with him tugging on his arm saying, "What's wrong! What's wrong? Where's Da? What happened?" Close to hysterics, she ran ahead of Jaspert and turned and faced him looking him directly in the eyes, "Answer me! What's wrong? Where's Da?"

Not breaking eye contact her brother replied slowly, "Its Da. He's not coming back. And just like that, Deryn's old life ended.

"Get up you ninny!" Jaspert called up the stairs.

"I'm coming. I'm coming," Deryn replied grumpily still half asleep.

"Deryn honey, would you like to come with your aunt and me shopping?" Deryn's mother called up about five minutes later.

Deryn internally groaned. She would love to be up in a hot air balloon rather than being on the ground learning how to be a 'proper lady'.

"No thanks, ma," she replied hoping her mother would accept the answer.

"You know, Deryn, your aunt would be very happy if you joined her for tea once and a while," her mother continued seemingly ignoring Deryn's answer.

"Yes, ma I know," Deryn replied half-heartedly.

"Ok so next week you'll come with me to your aunt's for tea?" her mother questioned.

"Yes, ma," she said finally joining her small family in the kitchen.

Slowly eating breakfast, Deryn gazed at the pale blue sky. What she wouldn't give just to be up in the air again, flying in one of Da's hot air balloons. Jaspert watching Deryn closely got up to put away his dishes.

"You really miss Da don't you?" he asked his face taking on a thoughtful expression.

"What do you think, you ninny? I haven't been up in the air since Da…died…" she replied trailing off.

There was an uncomfortable silence after that until suddenly Jaspert grinned mischievously saying, "I think I have an idea."

"And what would this idea be?" Deryn asked knowing how Jaspert's ideas usually turned out. He just smiled and turned to a drawer and started rooting through it. Raising his hand triumphantly he held up a pair of scissors.

"You know who can fly?" he asked her.

"Who?" she wondered trying to figure out what he was thinking.

"Us, the air service men," he replied as Deryn's eyes widened considerably as Jaspert held up the scissors to her long hair.

"We are going to make an air service man out of you!" he cried accenting the word man.

"And just how are we going to do that?" Deryn asked skeptically.

"Just you wait and see," Jaspert grinned making Deryn almost regret mentioning anything. Until suddenly she thought, '_I'm going to be able to fly again!' _And with that thought still swirling around her head, Deryn helped Jaspert get to work on his plans.

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><p><strong>So this was my short one shot. What do ya think? Please review with comments and critiques. I love hearing from reviewers!<strong>

** ~ Clarinetto14  
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